Important Dates

Regular Meetings Monthly

on 4th Friday at 10:30 am.

Board Meetings 10:30 Holy

Trinity Lutheran Church; Jan

- Oct:, 3rd Friday

Newsletter Deadline: 1st

Friday of the Month

Elvis Presley (1/8)

Betty White (1/17)

Dolly Parton (1/19)

DeForest Kelley (1/20)

Chinese New Year (1/23)

Beer Can Day (1/24)

Anita Baker (1/26)

Holocaust Mem Day (1/27)

Super Bowl (2/5)

In this issue:

December Meeting

Report

1

Health Tidbits 2

Community Service 3

Trip Reports 4

Notes from the Editor 5

Land O’Lakes AARP Chapter #4764

January 2012

December Meet ing News by Phy l l i s Bross

The Latest Scoop

The Christmas/Holiday General Meeting and Luncheon were held on December 16 at the Holy Trinity Church. The meeting was well attended, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed this final 2011Chapter general meeting. The formal portion of the meeting included George's general announcements, recognition of members and guests present, and

member birthday announcements. Thereafter, we all had some real "fun" as we struggled and attempted to answer George's newsletter quiz questions as quickly as we possibly could, while George strictly controlled the crowd's answers by ringing his brand new "compliance bell" whenever he felt that he had heard enough. (For some reason, the Board and Members seem less than thankful to my husband Rich and myself for having bought it for him!). Also, Marion was identified as the very pretty baby featured in the December Newsletter. George is asking members to consider sending him - in secret - their baby pictures for inclusion in our 2012 Newsletters. In fact, he needs a baby picture for the January Newsletter as quickly as possible, so please contact him this month if you want your baby picture to appear. George also asked members to help make it possible for the poor to enjoy holiday dinners by providing donations to Gabi during the meeting/luncheon so that she could purchase and deliver food gifts cards in time for Christmas. Thanks to the generosity of our members, Gabi was able to collect a total of $75.00 by the end of the day's event. Congratulations, Gabi!

Overall, the Holiday Luncheon was a great success. Local young children sang holiday songs for us, and other children provided Christmas decorations. Our Chapter's outgoing Vice President Steve Wolf managed the luncheon portion of the day by presiding over blessings at mealtime, expressing thanks for a successful 2011, and, wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2012. Steve also entertained us (with the help of several Chapter Members) by teaching us how to say "Seasons Greetings" in many different languages. The language lesson was further enhanced as some members let down their hair with a bit of singing. (continued on page 2)

Future Meet ings Our next general meeting will be held on January 27 at 10:30 AM at Copper-stone Executive Suites. Please bring pastries or fruit to share, as this meeting will include a simple "coffee and cake" type of snack - not a full luncheon. Carol Roth, a very accomplished social worker, professor and analyst, will be our Fea-tured Speaker.

Christmas Entertainment

December News (cont inued) Page 2

727-992-4051

The Chapter's Officers and Board hereby thank Steve for assisting the President in the leadership of our Chapter, and for Steve's intelligent and creative projects and membership interaction. We also thank Steve for his many other services, as he now steps down. We also thank Joe Fornino for all of his past services as a hard working and clear thinking Board Member, and also for his cheerful and successful run as Mem-bership Committee Chair. We will miss them both in these positions, but we now look forward to having our new Vice President, Walter Dummeldinger, come aboard in 2012, along with new Board Member/Membership Committee Chair Rich Abbattista. Carol Roth, a very accomplished social worker, professor and analyst, will be our Featured Speaker in January. She is highly experienced in the needs of seniors, whether the issue at hand is emotional health, grief counseling, the need for care giver tips, or, if we simply want some pointers on healthy recreation and living well. Carol is an upbeat, entertaining speaker, and George believes that members and their guests will enjoy the experience of hearing Carol speak, and at the meeting he invited everyone to be there in January. Having heard Carol address my Alzheimer's Care Givers' Support Group a few months ago, I wholly support that request. In closing, I know that all Chapter Members join me, and all of the other Officers and Board Members, first, in thanking George Cooper for his tireless efforts and great success as our President thus far, and second, in pledging our continued help and support as he continues as President in 2012. Happy New Year! . . . Phyllis Bross, Board Secretary

Yes, our Chapter has a Twitter account just so that we can keep up with all the latest in social media. So, this month, I thought I would give you a few of the recent tweets we’ve received that have to do with your health. Here goes. The new Medical Center of Trinity tweeted on “Constipation, Why Suffer” to let us know they will have a program called “Constipation: Why Suffer?” to discuss constipation, its causes and treatments on Friday, January 20 at 1pm. AARP tweeted about an article in the Huffington Post about how people over 65 do more binge

drinking than any other age group. That is like 5 or 6 drinks at a time, 5 or 6 times a month. (Shame on you people! If you are going to do that, at least invite your newsletter editor.) AARP Magazine tweeted about a 400 pound man who lost 186 pounds by walking. Research has shown that walking regularly can help protect the aging brain against memory loss and dementia, help cut the risk of heart disease, and re-duce the chance of developing type 2 diabetes in high-risk adults by a whopping 60 percent. Walking could be the single best thing you do for yourself in 2012. See what you missed on Twitter?

Health News & Tips from Twitter

Our Vets really love to play Bingo, and they welcome our assistance and our companionship each month. Only three Chapter members came out to help at the December Bingo session, and, with 23 Vets at the bingo tables, it could not have been an easy job for Gabi and her crew (comprised of Joe and Marion) to provide the support. So, if Gabi calls you for help, join in and have some fun while helping out. Or, give her a call at 813-

996-9793 and volunteer. Thanks to everyone who has helped out this year—our Vets really appreciate it. As always, the animal shelter needs soft items for their animal guests.

Community Ser v ice—Gabrie le Hansen Page 3

This space available, $25 per

year. Talk to your local mer-

chant today.

Volunteers

CARES: Gabriele Hansen 3.5 hrs; Friendship

Singers: Steve Dierking, 8 hrs; Our Lady of the

Rosary: Jean Cangelosi 24 hours; Lopez Veterans

Home, Gabriele Hansen, Steve, & Marion Meier—2 hrs each. Animal Shelter & CSS: Gabriele 1.5 hrs. Alzheimer’s Support Group: Phyllis, 3.5 hours, Rich 1.5 hours. If you do volunteer work for local organizations, please report the hours each month either to the newsletter editor (996-6100) or to any of the Board members.

Congratu lat ions ! January birthdays: Jim Gamble and Edward Scott. Congratulations to all of you. If you have a birthday to celebrate and we missed you, let us know !

Sunsh ine and Sympathy Anita Kennebeck sent 2 birthday cards and a

‘missing you” card to Phyllis Rowan from the

Chapter. If you know of anyone who needs

Sunshine, Anita would appreciate a call at 813-

9 4 8 - 8 2 8 9 , o r e m a i l h e r a t

akennebeck@tampabay.rr.com. Thanks!

22722 State Road 54 ;

Lutz, FL 33549; 813-909-8434

Facebook & Twitter

Check us out on Facebook at LOLAARP. There is plenty of news and information, so “friend” the Chapter. Our Twitter address is @LoLAARP. Check it out!

Coffee & Cake

For the December meeting we had a lovely Christmas feast from the crew at the Trinity Lu-theran Church. For the January, we will go back to the coffee and cake format, where you bring the “cake” and we bring the coffee.

Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink

and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary

community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reforma-

tion to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings

considerably shorter than ever. - Mark Twain

Tr ip Reports Page 4

"Home for the Holidays" by Phyllis& Rich We spent the holidays this year in our native State of New Jersey with: our oldest daughter and son in law, three of our five grandsons, four "grand dogs", three sisters/a brother and their spouses, two nieces, two nephews, and a 95 year old aunt. Last year was our very first Christmas season living in Florida, and al-though we love living down here, the 8 day trip "up north" was terrific. We attended a festive Christmas Eve party in Washington Township, toured the quaint little Borough of Pitman to enjoy fabulously deco-rated homes, hosted a pool party at our hotel for the grandkids, spent a terrific Christmas day around the tree at our daughter's home in Deptford, and dined out in Marlton and Mount Laurel with our long-time South Jersey friends. I even ran into the CFO from my previous law firm and took the opportunity to treat my former secretary to lunch. In addition, while attending a 30th birthday party at Rich's former customer's restaurant for our niece (who became a nurse less than one year ago), she became engaged - what a great surprise! Also, our oldest grandson was accepted to New Jersey's Stockton University during our trip, although he may ultimately choose to attend school in Florida. The weather was cold, but not too cold most days. Amazingly, every-one got along - that is really saying something for a group of relatives that size! Rich did get a little sick toward the last few days of the trip, and I forgot that I am not 25 any longer and wore high heeled shoes every evening during the trip - yes, my feet are still killing me...! Other than those two things and a bit of over eating, it was a perfect vacation at our home away from home. “Not Home for the Holidays” by George Christine and I decided to flee the hustle and bustle of Land O’Lakes and take an 8 day cruise on the Ce-lebrity Solstice. That way, I avoided having to put up our 14 foot Christmas tree and take it down. The ship was huge. We had exactly 3,048 passengers and with crew that was more than the population of my home town of Durand, Michigan. The top deck, deck 15, was covered with real grass (that somebody else had to mow), and there were so many bars and restaurants that it took us all 8 days to visit them. We en-joyed the fact that someone else put up all the decorations, and someone else did all the cooking and driv-ing. The food onboard was fantastic, and there was wonderful entertainment all over the ship every night. We left from Ft. Lauderdale, sailed for 2 days to San Juan, then went to St. Thomas, St. Martin, and St. Kitts before returning to Ft. Lauderdale. On the trip down we had high winds (50 mph!) and heavy seas (16 foot waves), but the ship was so big you really couldn’t feel it very much. The return trip was more like the balmy Caribbean Sea that we know and love. We have a soft spot in our hearts for the Virgin Islands because we got married there, but for the most part we really don’t care where the ship goes. We enjoy our time on the ship, just relaxing and hanging out together, and planning our next cruise!

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you like and trust if they would like

to sponsor an ad.

Editor ’s Corner Page 5

This space available!

We are off and running with the new year, and you know what that means: it’s time to renew your membership! Please remember to bring your cash or check to the next meeting so that you can pay Elaine, our Treasurer. Speak-ing of the new year, this is a wonderful month because we get two opportuni-ties to celebrate considering that January 23 is the Chinese New Year. This is the year of the dragon, which in the 12 year animal cycle of the Chinese Zo-

diac also occurred in 1917, 1929, 1941, & 1953. If you were born in a dragon year, let me know how it has affected you!

With the start of the legislative session in Florida, I recommend you stay tuned to our Chap-ter Facebook page and follow our Twitter feed to keep up. This year, Florida legislators will be deciding issues that could have big impacts on Floridians 50+. From new proposals to ban texting while driving to legislation affecting your ability to choose where and how you receive long-term care, votes in the 2012 legislative session will directly affect your life. And, AARP is tracking the voting records of our legislators on all the vital issues. So, I en-courage everyone to ask questions and get involved. Otherwise, you can’t complain later!

Last month’s cute young thing was Marion Meier. Fatima Blush was a villain in the 1983 Bond film, Never Say Never Again, played by Barbara Carrera. William Perry was William “Refrigerator” Perry, who played for Chicago in 1985—was 6’2” and 382 pounds. Mickey Roonie, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra had in common that they all married Ava Gardner. Those dimensions applied to Betty Grable’s legs, thought to be perfect proportions. Mary, Queen of Scots became the ruler of Scotland when only 6 days old because she was the only surviving offspring of King James 5th. All these folks had birthdays in December. Now, tell me what doctor became famous for pronouncing people dead? Also, who is Miley Cyrus’ godmother, and who holds the record for the longest time span between Emmy nominations for performances?

Be sure to patronize our advertisers!

This space available—ask a business

you like and trust if they would like

to sponsor an ad.

If you don’t know where you are going, you

might wind up someplace else. - Yogi Berra

Do you have a financial plan?

Guess Who—the Answers , & More Quest ions

George Cooper, Editor

5420 Land O’Lakes Blvd, Suite 101

Land O’ Lakes, Fl. 34639

editor@AARPnews.org

813-996-6100

2012 COMMITTEES

Advertising Sales - Helen Fornino

Community Service - Gabriele Hansen

Legislative - Marion Meier

Membership - Rich Abbattista

Newsletter - George Cooper

Nominating - Peggy Cooper

Public Relations - Elaine Northrup

Programs - Walter Dummeldinger

Sunshine - Anita Kennebeck

Refreshments - ???

Telephone - Phyllis Rowan

50/50 - Elfreida Rapp

2012 BOARD MEMBERS

President - George Cooper

Vice.-Pres. - Walter Dummeldinger

Secretary - Phyllis Bross

Treasurer - Elaine Northrup

Helen Fornino

Rich Abbattista

Gabriele Hansen

Gloria Baronak

National Polka Month